Mayor Jim Kenney, Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sanchez and other state and business officials were on hand Tuesday afternoon to officially break ground on a $16 million retail center being erected in the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Fairhill.
The project, dubbed Plaza Allegheny, is set to bring a Save A Lot grocery store, an Advance Auto Parts store, a Dunkin' Donuts and more to the once vacant lot between 5th and 2nd streets and West Allegheny and Indiana avenues.
"There are 65,000 people living within a one-mile radius of the development and yet 75 percent of retail spending in this community is spent outside of this geographic area," said David Groverman, project developer for Plaza Allegheny, in a press release. "With the creation of Plaza Allegheny, the community will have far greater choice of goods and services located where they live.”
Kenney said Tuesday the project would bring an economic boost to a neighborhood with one of the city's highest unemployment rates.
An NBC10 report last year about violence in Fairhill claimed one in four people in the community were out of work.